Famed Storyteller Chess Lay Tells Tall Tales of Escalante
Description:
Seldom does one come across a small town such as Escalante, Utah, with so many gifted storytellers of tall tales and all shades inbetween. From the time the first Mormon settlers came trudging into Potato Valley, later to be called Escalante after the Escalante River that flows through the valley, these sturdy pioneers, all of them poorer than Job s turkey, seemed to thrive on hard work and humor. The Lord Himself must have chuckled when Bishop Andrew Schow, faithful old Dane that he was, prayed for rain. "Heavenly Father," he intoned for a group of his farmer friends, "Thou knowest how bone dry it s been here this entire summer, so please send us some rain, a nice gentle rain and not one of them old gully washers!" The good Lord, tis said, was so delighted with this heartfelt prayer that He sent that nice gentle rain the very next afternoon. Or take the time that drinking buddies Hanley Bailey and Lamon Griffin got into a squabble over politics one night. Lamon s patience at an end, he hauled off and clipped Hanley on the chin and broke his jaw. Six weeks later when Hanley finally got the fine copper wiring removed from his upper and lower teeth so he could talk again, he was asked about the nature of the altercation. "Well, sir," he said mock seriously, "it wuz like this---I wuz broadcastin when I should a been tunin in!" This book, definitely a MUST read, is a delight from start to finish. Readers will return to its pages again and again to savor the charming stories and anecdotes. . . .